David Schwinghammer's Blog - Posts Tagged "lisbeth-vs-camilla"
The Girl Who Lived Twice
THE GIRL WHO LIVED TWICE is primarily about a battle for their lives between Lisbeth and her twin sister, Camilla, who leads a crime syndicate.
Once again Michael Blomkvist plays a central role, but Lisbeth is acting really crabby and not communicating much. Blomkvist is also having a hard time writing his latest article about Russian trolls interfering in elections.
Lisbeth is preoccupied. She knows she's in a death match with her sister, and she corners Camilla and has her in her gun sites when she's unable to pull the trigger. She blames herself for what happened to Camilla as a child. She didn't realize what was happening when her father would take Camilla away late at night. He also beat her mother and Lisbeth took her mothers side; although she was being molested Camilla supported her father.
Due to her expertise with cybernetics, Lisbeth is able to keep her locality hidden from Camilla, who has no sentiments regarding Lisbeth; since she can't find Lisbeth she takes aim at Lisbeth's friends, mostly Michael Blomkvist. This is when Lagercrantz starts the author intrusion. Blomkvist knows Camilla's thugs are after him, but he's acting like it's a walk in the park and walks right into their hands. Lagercrantz needs him to do that to keep his plot pointed in the right direction.
There's a secondary plotline about a beggar Blomkvist passes dozens of times without noticing him, although the beggar tries to tell him something. The beggar has gone through hell on Mt. Everest and has lived in a sanitarium the last few years; he has trouble communicating. Eventually we realize he's talking about the Swedish Minister of defense, Forsell, and what happened on Mt. Everest when several people died, one of whom the Sherpa bore special responsibility for.
Lisbeth has no idea where they took Blomkvist, but she concentrates on the gang members, one of whom has a reputation as a loose cannon. He's using his phone. So we reach the conflict when Blomkvist is being tortured and Lisbeth tries to save him. It's not even remotely believable, especially what the gang is doing to Blomkvist, not that they'd do something like that, but that'd he'd survive. The whole gang is there, including Camilla, but Lagercrantz needs the good guys to win. How he does it is almost hilarious.
Prior to his kidnapping Blomkvist falls in lust with a conservative journalist. This, too, is unrealistic. Not only is she his opposite politically but Erika, his boss, is divorcing her husband and Michael has been in love with her for years. Ultimately she ends up writing the story for MILLENIUM, something that flabbergasts the staff.
I've read the first couple Lagercrantz replacements for Stieg Larsson and never had much of a problem until this one. It doesn't do Larsson justice and somebody should have made him rewrite it. The Mt. Everest scenario is almost as unbelievable.
Once again Michael Blomkvist plays a central role, but Lisbeth is acting really crabby and not communicating much. Blomkvist is also having a hard time writing his latest article about Russian trolls interfering in elections.
Lisbeth is preoccupied. She knows she's in a death match with her sister, and she corners Camilla and has her in her gun sites when she's unable to pull the trigger. She blames herself for what happened to Camilla as a child. She didn't realize what was happening when her father would take Camilla away late at night. He also beat her mother and Lisbeth took her mothers side; although she was being molested Camilla supported her father.
Due to her expertise with cybernetics, Lisbeth is able to keep her locality hidden from Camilla, who has no sentiments regarding Lisbeth; since she can't find Lisbeth she takes aim at Lisbeth's friends, mostly Michael Blomkvist. This is when Lagercrantz starts the author intrusion. Blomkvist knows Camilla's thugs are after him, but he's acting like it's a walk in the park and walks right into their hands. Lagercrantz needs him to do that to keep his plot pointed in the right direction.
There's a secondary plotline about a beggar Blomkvist passes dozens of times without noticing him, although the beggar tries to tell him something. The beggar has gone through hell on Mt. Everest and has lived in a sanitarium the last few years; he has trouble communicating. Eventually we realize he's talking about the Swedish Minister of defense, Forsell, and what happened on Mt. Everest when several people died, one of whom the Sherpa bore special responsibility for.
Lisbeth has no idea where they took Blomkvist, but she concentrates on the gang members, one of whom has a reputation as a loose cannon. He's using his phone. So we reach the conflict when Blomkvist is being tortured and Lisbeth tries to save him. It's not even remotely believable, especially what the gang is doing to Blomkvist, not that they'd do something like that, but that'd he'd survive. The whole gang is there, including Camilla, but Lagercrantz needs the good guys to win. How he does it is almost hilarious.
Prior to his kidnapping Blomkvist falls in lust with a conservative journalist. This, too, is unrealistic. Not only is she his opposite politically but Erika, his boss, is divorcing her husband and Michael has been in love with her for years. Ultimately she ends up writing the story for MILLENIUM, something that flabbergasts the staff.
I've read the first couple Lagercrantz replacements for Stieg Larsson and never had much of a problem until this one. It doesn't do Larsson justice and somebody should have made him rewrite it. The Mt. Everest scenario is almost as unbelievable.
